Earthquake

The ground was shaking like crazy when it hit. Me and my little sister, Lily, we got buried under a bunch of rubble.

I was in bad shape, barely hanging on.

Mom, who was part of the rescue crew, was trying to pry this huge chunk of concrete off of me, but it looked like she was trying to get to Lily instead.

I begged her not to move it, that it would crush me.

But she just snapped at me, "You're such a cold-hearted brat! You'd rather see your own sister die? So selfish! I wish we never had you."

And just like she wanted, I ended up dying.

But then things got really messed up because Mom, who never really liked me anyway, went totally off the rails.

1

I died, but my spirit kinda floated right over to Mom.

She was holding Lily tight, rushing her toward the triage area, looking all worried.

"Lily, honey, don’t you scare Mommy like that! Just hold on, the doctors are right there."

Dad was right next to her, furious. "That good-for-nothing Ashley, she couldn't even keep an eye on her little sister! I swear, we’d have been better off if we never had her, just a cold-hearted kid."

I just gave a sad little smile. Mom and Dad never liked me, not ever.

Well, guess you got what you wanted. I'm dead, just like you wanted. Try to pretend you don't have a daughter anymore.

The doctors checked Lily over, and it turned out she was just dehydrated and had passed out. Not a single scratch on her.

Then, some guy who was helping with the rescue said, "Hey, Ashley’s still under there. We need to go back for her.”

Mom just waved her hand, like it was nothing.

"She's tougher than she looks, she'll be fine. Probably just pouting 'cause I didn't hug her, trying to get my attention."

"Plus," she continued, "I already moved the rocks off her, she's fine. She looked okay, even talking, when we were getting Lily out of there.”

I was just floating there, listening to this same old song. I'd heard it a million times, but it still stung.

After that, she told Dad to watch Lily and she took off with the other rescue guys.

She got back after dark, looked around, her face was all scrunched up and mean.

"That kid Ashley, she still ain't back. How can she and Lily be so different? So inconsiderate!"

“If she doesn’t come home, good riddance, the less I see of her, the better."

Me and Lily had been buried under the same pile of rocks. She didn't care whether I made it out alive or not. Just kept on with her usual griping.

I was used to it, but it still felt like being stabbed.

Yeah, I was always the one who had to take a backseat to Lily. They didn't love me. Not even a little.

She was a professional rescuer; she had to know that moving those rocks like that could kill me!

But still, she just went ahead and did it, even though I begged her not to. Then she goes and calls me a "cold-hearted brat" and said I wanted my little sister to die and that she wish we never had me, then she just took Lily away and left me for dead.

She didn't care about me. Not even a ...